[Purple Cowboy]

Monday, November 2, 2020

First thing when I wake up my blackberry is all blown up with awaiting messages and my computer screen is crammed with instant messages. Many of them are from reporters attempting to rail me for making a hasty managerial switch. I understand how folks could think firing the manager one day and hiring a new one, especially a relative unknown, the very same day was a hasty move. But really I had a plan going into the job and had some candidates already in mind. At least that would be the spin from the General Manager's office this morning.

One of the few non-shakeup related notes was a rather coy trade proposal from Florida Marlins GM Stephen Frow who wanted our 30-year old shortstop Humphrey Ostendorff. My first inclination was to reject the trade because Hump has too good of a name but they dangled a 3rd round draft choice (requesting our 25th pick back along with Ostendorff) so I really had no choice but to accept. Humphrey was originally a 2nd round pick of the Chicago Cubs back in 2013 and was released at the end of the 2018 season after having been a bit player at the major league level for his last 3 years there. The very same day the Los Angeles Angels signed him to a 1-year deal, immediately placed him on waivers and we picked him up. He hit .262 for us in 2019 but appeared in just 24 games. Last season he spent the entire year with our AAA team Sacramento River Cats and didn’t seriously challenge breaking into our poor major league lineup by hitting .219. I wished Hump well and told him I’d check in with him later in the year to see how he was making out.

Well, it was Monday – time to start digging in and doing some in-depth evaluating of the talent in the team. Herb Watson my jack-of-all-trades assistant, new Manager Jeffery Hance, Head Scout Gaspar Zelaga and I all made our way to Reef on Embarcadero, the most expensive Oakland restaurant that I knew to get down to business.

Starting Pitchers

#33 Neifi Villaluazo 25, $350,000, Righty (4-14 5.16 ERA 34GS)
Neifi was a 3rd Round draft choice of the A’s back in 2013, 64th overall. He became the undisputed ace of the staff in 2019 when he posted a 7-7 record, sub-4.00 ERA and an opponents’ batting average of .227 before a fractured elbow put him out for 7 months. Last year he didn’t seem fully recovered from the injury with the 5.16 ERA, .302 OAVG and a WHIP over 1.5. In his 34 starts he gave up 30 home runs. Neifi has above average stuff, movement and control but tops out at around 86 miles-per-hour and has only average endurance. Elsewhere he’d probably make a solid #4 or #5 starter. This off-season he’s headed to salary arbitration but we might try to get him now to sign a multiple-year deal even with a history of finger blister problems and coming back from the elbow trouble. Neifi has posted a 17-36 overall record with a 5.39 ERA in 82 career starts in Oakland.

#68 Rich Harden 37, $6,910,000, Righty (8-20 5.52 ERA 36GS)
Rich Harden has spent his entire 18-year career with Oakland, finally breaking the 20-loss barrier last year after hitting 19 losses twice (2009 & 2018). At the age of 37 he was the only A’s starter to pitch at least 200 innings last year. Even with his diminishing control and stuff he still has above average endurance and gets a tremendous amount of ground ball outs. Since the rebirth of MLB he leads Oakland in almost every career pitching category including wins (194), losses (230) and strikeouts (3,307). Harden is signed through 2021 at $6,910,000 but is certainly winding down career-wise. If a contending club comes in with an offer and wouldn’t mind the contract it might be nice to give Harden a shot with a winning club in what might be his last year in baseball but then again fans and columnists have already made it clear it just wouldn’t seem right to see him win his 200th game in another uniform. Harden’s 125 walks last year led the American League.

#9 Ash Stapely 35, $5,190,000, Righty (9-21 6.37 ERA 35GS)
Wearing Reggie Jackson’s unretired #9 on his back, Ash Stapely was originally the 47th overall pick of the Minnesota Twins back in 2007 and was a .500 pitcher when he was traded to the A’s in 2013. Stapely pitched very well on some bad A’s teams even making the All-Star team in 2016 for the first and only time in his career. In 2017, shortly after signing a new long-term deal, a torn back muscle put him out for 7 months. Since his return he’s lost some control and stuff and is a shell of his former average self losing 19 games two years ago and 21 this season. His 21 losses tied teammate Stacy Renteria for the Major League lead and he also gave up 40 homers in 35 starts. He too is signed to that $5 mil contract through 2021 – that’s about $12,000,000 between Harden & Stapely who combined for 41 losses last year.

#23 Rick Stanley 24, $350,000, Righty (1-3 10.57 ERA 4GS)
Stanley was a September call-up when Gib Glaus was injured and may remain in the rotation next year. He has slightly below average control and average stuff and movement. Lasting deep into a game wouldn’t be much of a problem for him with his superior endurance and he really keeps baserunners close. At Triple-A Sacramento he was 12-9 with a 3.77 ERA, 1.47 WHIP and .243 OAVG in 26 starts. Stanley was originally drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2014 and bounced around in the Colorado & Washington organizations before ending up with Oakland. His 4 starts this year for the A’s were the first 4 in his Major League career and is an auto-resign at $350k.

#30 Stacy Renteria 29, $630,000, Righty (5-21 7.51 ERA 32GS)
Another journeyman who bounced from the Royals to the Twins to the Mets before landing in Oakland in 2016, Renteria was the Major League co-leader in losses, gave up 39 homers in 32 starts and had the worst ERA of any regular starter in baseball. The fact that my predecessor Manuel Silva signed him to a 2-year contract extension at $740,000 per year after the regular season was one of the final straws that led to his firing. He’s 48-80 with a 6.49 ERA in 165 starts in his 10-year Major League career.

#26 Gib Glaus 27, $1,540,800, Lefty (3-5 6.88 ERA 14GS)
The not-so-crafty lefty walked 66 batters while fanning 41 and sported a WHIP of 2.09 with opponents hitting .312 against him this past season. Even though at the end of the year he ended up at AAA with the River Cats rehabbing an injury he allowed only 9 homeruns while with the big club. It's always good to have a lefty in the starting rotation at the very least for a change of pace and Glaus is arbitration eligible this year so we may actually bring him back. Glaus has never lived up to expectations after being selected with the 3rd overall pick in the draft by the Royals in 2014. He has above average movement but combined with average control and below average stuff he earned a trade out of Kansas City after going 9-15 in 2017, his first full year in the Majors.

On The Farm
You’d think that an organization that has been losing for year after year would have a stockpile of young arms developing and chomping at the bit to break into the Major League setup. Nothing could be further from reality though. 30-year old River Cat Reid Brown is the only other starter on the 40-man roster and he’s just clogging up a spot. He was up for a cup of coffee in 2019 and 2020 but used solely as a reliever. He gets an auto-renewal for 2021 at the minimum but we may very well try to package him in a trade or just release him if no one’s interested. The only “sure thing” prospect in the entire organization, in fact, the only starter at any level that can break 90-m.p.h. on a radar gun, is the raw 17-year old Harry Hatfield who spent his first year as a professional with the Vancouver Canadians in the Rookie League.

Analysis
We need starting pitching. Lots of it. It’s going to be a major focus during the winter meetings and free agent period.